Aliphatic primary amines and aliphatic secondary amines are important compounds in domestic and industrial application fields and have been used as raw materials for production of surfactants, fiber-treating agents, etc.
The aliphatic primary amines and aliphatic secondary amines have been produced by various processes. As one of the production processes, there is known the method of contacting an aliphatic alcohol with ammonia and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst. In the catalytic reaction, there has been used a nickel/copper-based catalyst or a noble metal-based catalyst.
As the methods for producing amines from alcohols, etc., using the noble metal-based catalyst, in particular, a ruthenium-based catalyst, there are disclosed, for example, the method using a catalyst formed by supporting about 0.001 to about 25% by weight of ruthenium and about 0.1 to about 6% by weight of cobalt and/or nickel together with about 0 to about 10% by weight of copper and about 0 to about 5% by weight of an accelerator composed of various metals on a porous oxide such as alumina, silica and an aluminosilicate (refer to Patent Document 1), and the method using a catalyst formed by supporting about 0.001 to about 25% by weight of ruthenium and about 6 to about 50% by weight of cobalt and/or nickel together with about 0.1 to about 10% by weight of copper and about 0 to about 5% by weight of an accelerator composed of various metals on a porous oxide such as alumina, silica and an aluminosilicate (refer to Patent Document 2), etc.    Patent Document 1: JP 10-174874A    Patent Document 2: JP 10-174875A